New Paid Sick Leave and PTO Laws for the New Year: Significant Employer Impact; Key Considerations for Compliance

Description

Effective Jan. 1, 2024, California, Illinois, and Minnesota are enacting and/or revising PSL/PTO laws that will significantly impact employers. California employers must provide employees with at least 40 hours of annual PSL, an increase from 24 hours. Employers may still limit annual use and accrual, but at a higher level than before. Additionally, the law extends nonretaliation and procedural protections to collective bargaining agreement employees.

Minnesota is enacting a new law that allows employees to accrue up to 48 hours of PSL per year subject to certain limitations. Businesses with one or more employees are covered as there is no small employer exemption. Illinois' new law guarantees that employees can earn up to 40 hours of PTO per year to be used for any reason also subject to certain limitations, although the law notably exempts employers subject to local PSL ordinances such as those in Chicago and Cook County. But, the city of Chicago also has passed its own sweeping paid leave ordinance that requires employers to provide all employees working in the city with up to five annual days of paid leave that can be used for any purpose (paid leave) and five annual days of paid sick leave that can be used for specified purposes (paid sick leave).

In addition to these new laws soon to go into effect, Colorado and Connecticut recently expanded their PSL laws to include additional events to trigger coverage. Effective Aug. 7, 2023, Colorado's law added three new events that trigger sick leave eligibility that include qualifying bereavement and natural-disaster-related reasons. Effective Oct. 1, 2023, Connecticut's PSL law now allows service workers to use sick leave for their own mental health wellness or for qualifying reasons to assist their child (of whom they are a parent or guardian) who is a victim of family violence or sexual assault.

Listen as our expert panel guides practitioners through recent developments related to state PSL/PTO laws that will significantly affect employers. The panel will also provide best practices for compliance.